How To Focus a Topic

I find many of of my students have seldom, if ever, been allowed to choose and focus their own topics. They have been, as I often say, “prompted to death.” Yet the work of choosing and focusing a topic are essential writing moves – perhaps the most important writing moves of all, because they involve having something to say.

When students are used to having topics handed to them wrapped in standardized assessments, they are often bewildered by being given freedom. But watching them learn to struggle to find their own voices is worth it. And often amusing. I drew these comic strips to illustrate that struggle.